The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?

In article ,
Anthony Ward wrote:

The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?

Coffee grounds grow BIG red worms! :-)

I live on a giant limestone plain. The soil and water are naturally
alkaline so adding citrus peels to compost is not an issue.

It's going to depend on where you live.
--
K.

Sprout the MungBean to reply

"I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell--you
see, I have friends in both places." --Mark Twain

Anthony Ward wrote:
The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?

no. finished compost is near neutral under all circumstances. if you
can get buckets of coffee (or buckets of peels) go for it.

I usually take home about 4 pounds of grounds from the coffee stations
here at work every day. Coffee grounds are considered a "green" for
composting where you want a combination of green and brown ingrediants.
I forget the ratio, though. But composting is not a precise activity.

I've also heard that grounds are 2% nitrogen.

I put them in my main bin where the kitchen scraps go and in the worm
bin with newspapers. Actually I add them to all of my heaps. I have
pretty good compost. It's a little weedy and needs to be screened
because I put sticks and twigs in it. But I consider coffee grounds to
be a vital ingredient. I don't have that much in the way of other green
ingredients and I have lots of dried leaves, dried grass and pine needles.

I don't add citrus to my worm bin, but I do to the main bin. Which has
quite a lot of worms. I guess they can avoid the citrus on their own.
The worms seem to like the coffee grounds. And compost the paper
filters, too. You don't have to separate them out.

simy1 wrote:

Anthony Ward wrote:

The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?


no. finished compost is near neutral under all circumstances. if you
can get buckets of coffee (or buckets of peels) go for it.

On Mon, 6 Jun 2005, Anthony Ward wrote:

The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?


Not necessarily. It probably depends on what you are growing. I have
nearly 100% clay where I am gardening. I tried (for laughs) mixing
1/3 local clay soil that weeds were previously growing on, 1/3
vermiculite, and 1/3 coffee grinds. I planted tomatillos and tomato
seeds into this (about 100 plants), from fresh, dried seeds. This
was placed under incandescent 60 Watt light bulbs to give light and
temperature around 30 C. Growability was almost 100% percent, and
they sprouted and grew at prolific rate. If this is tried in a sealed
container, like a portably greenhouse, I got some mold, but even after
getting really moldy and removing the cover, the soil just dried up,
the mold went away and the plants were in fact growing very happily.
Many were planted in May and are now about ready to move to my
greenhouse (required since I live in Sweden). Yes, coffee is terrific
fopr me since there is so much of it here....

Dominic

"Anthony Ward" wrote in message
...
The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?

A number of years ago, I too had the opportunity to get coffee grounds and
orange pulp for my compost, and I also was told that both were too acid.
Well, people just think that, but they're wrong. Coffee grounds are nearly
neutral in pH. I don't know about orange pulp, but I can say that it really
made good compost. Lots of nitrogen in it. Make sure you turn the compost
pile often and it should get very hot.
_________________
John Henry Wheeler
Washington, DC
USDA Zone 7

Regarding pH of coffee grounds, to my knowledge, coffee can be used
as a pH indicator and is only midly acidic. I do not know if the
tannins and theobromines, etc are a problem for the plants we are
discussing, or for that matter, the molds that can grow on this,
which often make toxins. The pH does not itself seem to be a
problem for most vegetables. With rotting, the pH could easily
end up very different. I have not gotten motivation to measure pH
on smelly rotted compost, certainly not with my expensive pH meter.
However, there are pH indicator dyes that can cheaply be added to
give a good approximation.

Dominic

Your co-worker is wrong. Used coffee grounds have little acid in them....
and if you compost it, it's going to be neutral. (all acording to UC Davis)
You can throw your citrus peels in also among most other foods. It'll break
down just like other food items. I always save a few to put down my garbage
disposer to give it a fresh smell.

"Anthony Ward" wrote in message
...
The canteen at my workplace is trying to improve its recycling
statistics and so is bagging up the used coffee grounds from the
machine and offering this to customers for their garden compost bins.
A colleague has said this is not a good idea because the grounds are
too acidic. I would appreciate knowing the thoughts of experienced
gardeners on this please. I am not particularly wanting to grow
acid-loving plants.
I have also heard that one should not add citrus peel to the compost
bin for the same reason. Does the group agree?

"Katra" wrote:
Coffee grounds grow BIG red worms! :-)

:-) Red worms? Are those earth worms? I've noticed that putting some
coffee grounds around some pepper plants brought some earth worms
to the surface. There was this one nice worm squirming around
yesterday. I thought it odd to see it on the top of the soil squirming
around.

--
Jim Carlock
Please post replies to newsgroup.

I use coffe grounds in my compost all the time. I put citrus peels in there too along with all my kitchen scraps. THe only problem I had with my compost pile is when I put the leftover ashes from our cookout the day before and it started my compost pile on fire! Now I wait several days before putting the ashes in.